


Moon Beams

by hazzarat



Series: In Your Eyes I See Constellations [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Established Feelings, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, Moon, Post-Episode: s03e14-15 The Boiling Rock, Prison, but not relationship whoops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:28:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26483425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hazzarat/pseuds/hazzarat
Summary: The moon is high in the sky, it’s light illuminating her face and glinting off of the surface.The sight before her fills Mai’s chest with a longing she’s felt since they left their starlit camp.“Do you remember the night we sat under the stars?” Mai asks, her hand tightening around the bar.“I do.”“You told me you’d fallen in love with me.”
Relationships: Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Series: In Your Eyes I See Constellations [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1925323
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	Moon Beams

**Author's Note:**

> Second installment in this series! I absolutely love them and couldn't resist building on my last ficlet. I hope you enjoy!
> 
> As always, huge thanks to my betas for being the absolute best! [steviesbucks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/steviesbucks) [showzen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/showzen)

She couldn’t believe she had actually done it until after when Ty Lee stepped in to stop Azula flaying her alive and she lay on the floor cursing them both. It wasn’t until Ty Lee rushed towards her, grabbing her arm and telling her to run she realised the severity of what they’d done.

She hadn’t thought about doing it beforehand, had simply acted and refused to let Azula boil Zuko and his group in the boiling water. They hadn’t only directly gone against Azula, they’d  _ attacked  _ her.

They were apprehended, hands cuffed behind their backs as Azula was lifted from the floor screaming at them. They said nothing, allowing their hands to be tied roughly together before being pushed away from the princess.

Though she’d said nothing, her mind was reeling over what they’d done. Azula has never been known for her mercy.

She had glanced at Ty Lee, saw the mixture of fear and determination in her eyes and  _ knew. _

She thinks back to that day, months ago, when they were sitting on a ledge at the edge of a forest, the only light coming from the moon.

Mai sits with her back against the cold stone of her cell, staring bleakly out of her window. She thinks back to a time when things weren’t easier but they were less complicated. 

It’s fitting that locked in two identical cells, the only light filtering through the slits in the wall is narrow beams of moonlight.

She remembers a gentle kiss and how it had tasted of promise. It tasted of loyalty, of  _ love. _

Her hair is falling out of its usual style, the strands falling loosely over her shoulders in a dark cascade. The pins which had once secured it in place are slipping so she carefully pulls each pin from her hair. She places them in a pile next to her on the damp floor, thinking of all the times when Ty Lee had insisted she sit and let her do it instead. She thinks of delicate fingers which never pulled and ran through her hair with careful strokes to catch any missed pins. She thinks of the reverent way she would look at her after as if she wanted to commit her face to memory.

It had been hours since they last spoke and even knowing she was in the cell next to her, Mai missed her.

Mai’s eyes are slipping closed where she sits when Ty Lee calls her name.

“Hm?” She blinks, trying to shake the beginnings of sleep from her eyes, stretching her stiff shoulders from leaning against the cold wall.

“Are you okay?” Mai can’t see her, can only hear her cautious voice slightly muffled from the other side of the wall.

She sighs and leans her temple against the wall, raising her hand to rub at her sore eyes. “I’m not sure. Are you?”

There’s a pause and Ty Lee speaks, her bright voice subdued and meek like a candle snuffed. “I’m scared, I think.”

She needs to know. “Do you regret it?”

“No,” She replies without hesitation.

Mai stands, her limbs numb from the cold permeating the entire cell block, and makes her way over to the three bars which class as her window. She reaches out, grips one of the metal bars in her hand and stares out over the water they’re surrounded by. The moon is high in the sky, it’s light illuminating her face and glinting off of the surface. 

The sight before her fills Mai’s chest with a longing she’s felt since they left their starlit camp.

“Do you remember the night we sat under the stars?” Mai asks her hand tightening around the bar.

“I do.”

“You told me you’d fallen in love with me.”

“I did.”

“I said it back.”

“You did.”

It’s simple.

Mai sighs and rests her forehead against the cool metal. It confuses her ( _ scares her)  _ sometimes how fast things change and how quickly they move on afterwards. 

Ever since that night, they hadn’t done anything again: they hadn’t even mentioned it. Mai had told herself it wasn’t the right time - it was too risky - but now, faced with life in a cell at the hands of Azula, she knows she was making excuses for the real reason: her fear. She was scared of what Azula would say and what her parents would say.

She was scared of the true depth of her feelings for her best friend.

“I can’t believe you’d go to all this trouble.” She doesn’t mean to say it but something about the emptiness of her cell makes it easy to let it go. “To help me, that is.”

Ty Lee hadn’t brought it up either but she knows without asking it was for the same reasons as her. Ty Lee may have always been more of an adventurous spirit than Mai but she understood what was at stake. 

Azula had always enjoyed their fear.

Ty Lee doesn’t respond as quickly as she did before but when she does, the echo of her voice around the cells is fond.

“You don’t have amnesia, do you?”

This startles a laugh out of Mai, rough and incredibly loud in the bleak quiet. “No, not since the last time I checked.”

“Then,” Ty Lee knocks on the bars of her own window, “You shouldn’t have to ask me to ‘go to all this trouble’. Zuko was my friend too.” She lowers her voice, ”I told you before that I’d fallen in love with you. You’ll always come before anything, Mai.”

“Ty…”

Ty Lee’s voice becomes stronger, more like her normal tone, and Mai can imagine the jut of her chin as clearly as she can see the ripples in the lake. “No, I mean it! I told you then because you deserved to know but now I’m able to act on it. I love you, Mai and I’d do anything for you.”

They have nothing else to lose. Now, she feels brave and she swears to herself, for her sake and for Ty Lee’s, they won’t hold back anymore.

It’s the easiest thing she’s done in a while. “I love you, too.”

Mai looks out and at the stars in the sky, remembering the joy lining Ty Lee’s face as she pointed out shapes she could hardly envision. “Ty?”

“Hm?”

“Thank you.”

Ty Lee doesn’t reply but she doesn’t need to. She understands.

There’s quiet for a while, the sounds of trees rustling outside of the building and the faint crackle of the torches lining the path around the lake. 

“Hey, you see that group of stars there? About five of them in a straight line?” She doesn’t know where this has come from but she continues anyway, knowing Ty Lee would get a kick out of it, “It’s a weasel snake.”

Ty Lee’s laughter is whistle-bright and echoes through the empty hallway. “I’ll make an astronomer out of you yet.”

Mai scoffs, “Unlikely.”

Ty Lee laughs again and Mai wishes more than anything to see her smile.

“Do you think that even though we’re Fire Nation, the moon spirit might listen to us?”

Mai looks to the moon, large and bright against the dark night sky. “I don’t see why not.”

She hears shuffling at the other side of the wall and then the dull tap of nails against the metal bars. 

“Here goes nothing! If you can hear me, Great Moon Spirit, I ask for only a moment of your time.” Mai listens as she takes a deep breath. “I know you owe us nothing and that, well, we’re  _ Fire Nation  _ but it seems that the last time we spoke under the moon it led us to freedom.”

“You call this free?”

“Metaphorically free, now shush.” Ty Lee pauses for a moment. “We have nothing to offer but I think you’re our last hope.” There’s a wobble in her voice now and she knows for certainty she’s not the only one this hit hard.

“We betrayed Azula so Zuko and his group could live.  _ I  _ betrayed Azula to protect Mai. We know now that Azula was wrong.”

“If there’s anything we can do to help more, we’ll do it,” Mai promises.

Mai is sure she imagines the moon glow brighter.

She’s even surer she imagines the faint outline of a girl with flowing hair because when she blinks- 

She’s gone.

-

The war is over and Zuko has been made Firelord. They only learn of this when Zuko himself comes rushing to their cells one evening, dressed in Fire Nation regalia and assuring them they’re free to leave. 

Ty Lee throws herself at Zuko, thanking him as she hugs him tightly. It says a lot about how much he’s changed when he simply pats her on the back.

Then she’s peeling herself off of him and throwing herself at Mai. She grabs her face and kisses her with all her might. 

They both ignore Zuko’s sigh and the clicking of his heels as he walks away, leaving them in each other's arms illuminated by a single moonbeam.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I really hope you like this series. There's going to be one more after this and I'm very excited :D
> 
> I'm [hazzarat](https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/blog/hazzarat) on tumblr so feel free to message me with any prompts or just for a chat!
> 
> Kudos and comments are appreciated so much. Honestly they completely fuel me so thank you for leaving them!


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